In the course of manufacturing sheet metal coils, such as steel coils, the sheet metal is coated with lubricating and rust inhibitive oil prior to winding into coils. The coils are then generally moved to a storage facility until arrangements are made for shipment of the coils to the customer or to the next processor of the sheet metal coil.
While a coil is sitting in the storage facility, which may be for a duration of only hours or for several weeks, the coil weeps or leaks oil, which collects on the floor of the storage facility. This creates a dangerous condition for persons working in the area, including those persons responsible for cleaning the floor or for operating the cranes that lift and transport the coils in and out of the facility.
To contend with this oil leakage, there have been attempts to locate collection pans beneath the coils in the storage facility. This system requires, however, that someone regularly collect, empty and clean the pans. Another attempt to solve the problem has been the placement of moisture collection pads beneath the stored coils. These too must be periodically removed and replaced.
Recently, metal coil storage facilities have been developed which utilize completely automated cranes for moving the metal coils within the storage facility. In such facilities, which are oftentimes about the size of a football field, overhead cranes normally receive the incoming coils and move them to a selected storage site. When those coils are to be transferred out of the storage facility, the crane retrieves them and moves them to various exit points for loading onto trucks and railcars. Oil leakage in such facilities is particularly troublesome because the stored coils are preferably positioned so closely together that there is no room for a cleanup person and his equipment to move between the coils. Furthermore, because the facility is completely computer controlled, it must be completely shut down in order to clean up the collected oil on the floor of the facility.
There is thus a need to develop a system for removal of oil leaking from stored metal coils that does not require personnel to enter the storage area and does not require shut-down of the facility.